Committee hears overview of mayor's proposed CDBG budget; Marino Park accessibility project added

City housing and planning officials presented the mayor's proposed FY2026'2027 Community Development Block Grant budget to the Committee on Urban Development Renewable Planning North on March 27, 2026, laying out program priorities, funding totals and the committee's next steps.

Emily Friedman, director in the Division of Community Development, said the proposal is the second investment under the 2025'2029 consolidated plan and was informed by community engagement, market analysis and a fair-housing review. "We released a NOA or a notice of funding availability in February where we received almost 100 worthwhile proposals," Friedman said, noting total requests ran about $17.5 million with roughly $12.5 million specifically seeking CDBG funds.

Friedman and Alyssa McDermott, director of housing and community development, described the city's selection priorities as sustaining basic urgent needs and ready-to-proceed projects. "The mayor and staff identified for funding those services and activities which ensure basic urgent needs like food and child care, homelessness prevention and response and refugee services are able to sustain their operations and baseline service delivery," Friedman said. Staff emphasized that funded activities must have a direct line to low- and moderate-income clients and meet HUD's national objectives; general nonprofit capacity, administrative offices and routine maintenance were described as ineligible uses.

Officials outlined outreach and the application process: a digital notice to a 1,400-address listserv (including council accounts), a recorded February workshop with more than 80 registrants, city website postings and an ad in the Providence Journal. HUD-required procedures such as a minimum scoring threshold for comparative analysis and subgrantee risk assessments were also explained.

Staff said HUD recently announced federal fiscal year 2026 allocations for CDBG, HOME, ESG and HOPWA, enabling the department to prepare a Sub-A budget based on actual allocations rather than projections. Officials said the city's allocation came in slightly above recent projections, at about $5.2 million, which permitted adding a single additional project to the recommended awards. "That was effectively the project that we identified that would make sense to'" Friedman said, referring to the Tucker River watershed / Marino Park and Greenway accessibility project as the one feasible addition given matching possibilities and project readiness.

Line-item highlights in the presentation included $1.3 million in HOME funds for affordable rental and homeownership development and a requested $548,000 for a down-payment assistance program; $459,000 in Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds to support shelter operations and rapid rehousing through a consolidated homeless fund consortium; and $1.5 million in HOPWA funds for supportive services and tenant-based rental assistance serving persons living with HIV/AIDS in the Providence MSA (which staff said includes Bristol County). Staff also said the combined community centers and public services bucket in the proposal is "just over a million dollars," and described an economic development category that makes lending through the Providence business loan fund.

Committee members pressed staff on which applicants could have been added with the marginal increase. McDermott said several high-scoring requests (for example, community library facilities and housing authority projects) were large and would have required partial funding, so only the Marino Park accessibility project had a coherent plan to be funded at a reduced level and to match council dollars. Council members discussed public housing capital needs and were told that major capital replacements such as wholesale HVAC or boiler replacements can qualify under CDBG as structural system work.

Members also raised questions about food banks and other frontline providers. Staff said food banks are eligible under public services when they apply, but a named local center had not submitted an application and therefore could not receive funds in this cycle; staff encouraged future applications and greater outreach coordination.

Chairwoman Harris framed the session as an introduction and urged committee members to review the budget details before further committee action. The committee moved to continue its review and later voted by voice to adjourn. No formal roll-call votes on projects were recorded during the meeting; staff said award projects and ward allocations remain to be finalized before the committee advances the budget for council passage and the federally required 30-day public comment period.

Next steps: staff will continue to work with council offices to confirm ward-specific awards and prepare the budget for committee and council passage in time to submit the action plan to HUD by the city's stated deadlines.